Practice question · Multiple choice
Inductive coding builds categories up from the data; deductive coding applies a framework decided in advance. Why is neither simply the better method?
Hints
- Ask what each approach is capable of finding, and what it is structurally unable to find.
- A framework decided in advance: what does it guarantee you will not notice?
Show the answer
D. Because they answer different questions: discovery versus test.
Why
The trade is between discovery and test, and it is the exploratory/confirmatory distinction in another form. Neither label survives inspection: a pre-specified framework embodies theoretical choices rather than objectivity, and inductive coding is held to account by reliability checks, audit trails and negative-case analysis. Most projects run both, in sequence.
Practise Qualitative Data Analysis
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